Contributor: Charles Freeman
Vessel: Kamaloha, 1987 Tayana 37, #542
Date of Posting: August 21, 2006

Harvey's post about his Dutchman Boom Brake made me think to post about my
solution to the boom-upside-the-head problem.

I originally ordered a Dutchman too. However, I was highly annoyed to find
after I got it that it requires an extra winch to use. This wasn't mentioned
in the Sailnet listing for the item. I have no spare winches aboard, and adding
one would have doubled the cost of the project, so I returned it.

Web surfing I ran across a unique British design called the Scott Boomlock. I
originally ordered one before my crossing last year, but the inventor,
who built them in his basement, had just passed away and supply was a problem.

His heirs have contracted with a company to build the design and they are now
available again. They are more expensive than the Dutchman but cheaper than
the Dutchman plus a winch, and I really like the design. As you can see it can
be controlled (from the cockpit) with just two fingers on a 3mm control line;
no winch needed. It also has the friction device on the boom, which means that
it requires no tension adjustment as the boom swings like the Dutchman does,
maintaining continuous even tension all the way across the boom swing.

As you can see in the photos, right now I'm just wrapping the waist hawse for
a hard point, but once I get some miles on the unit and decide exactly where I
want it I'll add a Wichard padeye to the deck. I disconnect the carabiners
when not sailing downwind, and coil and hook the friction lines to the
boomlock. You can also see that I added a small block to the mainsheet to make
sure it would not tangle on a port tack. The entire device dismounts with a
single screw pin if desired.

I don't have many miles on the unit yet so I have very little objective
feedback as to how well it works. I'll reply to this post at the end of the
season to let you know what I really think of it.

Charlie